1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an animal trap, and more particularly to a disposable trap for small animals which allows the user to discard the trap containing the captured animal without any exposure to the animal
2. Description of the Prior Art
The most common type of trap used for small animals, such as mice, is of the spring loaded type which may be repeatedly set and baited for catching a number of mice, one after the other. This type of trap is provided with a relatively strong spring so as to be capable of killing the mouse as it snaps shut, but occasionally, depending on the mouse's position when the trap is tripped, the mouse is only wounded and is held until it can be destroyed or freed by the user. The chore of removing the mouse from the trap, whether dead or alive, is unpleasant to most users, and additionally, the procedure required in baiting and setting the trap is a sufficiently intricate operation that it frequently results in a scare to the user, if not in bruised fingers, in the event the spring loaded member slips from the user's fingers or the trap is otherwise accidentally tripped.
As a result of the above disadvantages with the most commonly used mouse traps, there have been developed traps having an enclosure, usually a cage provided with a trap door arrangement, into which one or more mice may enter and remain until the user destroys the captured mice or removes them to a different area for release. Such structures are usually large and expensive, and requires some handling, or at least visual contact with the captives.
There have been further certain proposed disposable forms of small animal traps which allow capture of an animal, usually one mouse at a time, with the view of disposing of the trap and captured mouse at the same time. In the main, however, these traps have been of a sufficiently intricate design, often having a number of parts, some of which are moving parts, that the manufacturing and assembling costs are such, the user feels that in spite of the unpleasantness of the more commonly used devices, it is too costly to buy a trap that has only a one-time use.